Sheet material comprising fiber and nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler and method of producing said sheet material

Abstract

This invention relates to a sheet material comprising fiber and nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler, wherein the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler comprises microfibrillated cellulose and starch granule in such a way that the microfibrillated cellulose is dispersed with starch granule, and the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler has starch granule at least 15 wt %. Besides, this invention also relates to a method of producing said sheet material comprising fiber and nano-microscale organic filler, wherein the method comprises the steps of (i) preparing pulp suspension, (ii) preparing nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler, (iii) adding the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler into the pulp suspension, (iv) forming sheet material by pressing, and (v) drying the sheet material, wherein the preparation step of nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler provides the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler comprising microfibrillated cellulose and starch granule in such a way that the microfibrillated cellulose is dispersed with starch granule.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A sheet material comprising fiber and nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler comprising microfibrillated cellulose and a starch granule as components, wherein the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler is produced by applying a shear force at high pressure to an organic feedstock thereby liberating the starch granule from a starch sac of the organic feedstock and obtaining the microfibrillated cellulose from the organic feedstock, wherein the microfibrillated cellulose is dispersed with the starch granule within the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler, and wherein the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler comprises the starch granule at least 15 wt %. 
     
     
       2. The sheet material according to  claim 1 , wherein the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler comprises the starch granule ranging from 15 wt % to 95 wt %. 
     
     
       3. The sheet material according to  claim 1 , wherein the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler comprises microfibrillated cellulose ranging from 5 wt % to 85 wt %. 
     
     
       4. The sheet material according to  claim 1 , wherein the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler has an average particle size ranging from 5 nm to 600 μm. 
     
     
       5. The sheet material according to  claim 1 , wherein the applying shear force at high pressure to the organic feedstock is performed by using pressure ranging from 100 bars to 10,000 bars. 
     
     
       6. The sheet material according to  claim 1 , wherein the applying shear force at high pressure to the organic feedstock is performed by using high-pressure homogenization. 
     
     
       7. The sheet material according to  claim 1 , wherein the organic feedstock is an agricultural waste selected from cassava, potato, sweet potato, sago, taro, yam or a combination of at least two thereof. 
     
     
       8. The sheet material according to  claim 1 , wherein the microfibrillated cellulose has an average diameter ranging from 5 nm to 100 μm and an average length ranging from 0.02 mm to 0.5 mm. 
     
     
       9. The sheet material according to  claim 1 , wherein the starch granule has an average particle size ranging from 5 μm to 60 μm. 
     
     
       10. The sheet material according to  claim 1 , wherein the sheet material has the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler ranging from 0.5 wt % to 25 wt %. 
     
     
       11. The sheet material according to  claim 1 , wherein the sheet material has the starch granule ranging from 0.2 wt % to 20 wt %. 
     
     
       12. The sheet material according to  claim 1 , wherein the sheet material has the microfibrillated cellulose ranging from 0.05 wt % to 15 wt %. 
     
     
       13. The sheet material according to  claim 1 , wherein the fiber is derived from material selected from chemical pulp, mechanical pulp, semi-chemical pulp, recycled pulp, unbleached pulp, bleached pulp or a combination of at least two thereof. 
     
     
       14. The sheet material according to  claim 2 , wherein the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler comprises the starch granule ranging from 40 wt % to 90 wt %. 
     
     
       15. The sheet material according to  claim 3 , wherein the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler comprises the microfibrillated cellulose ranging from 10 wt % to 60 wt %. 
     
     
       16. The sheet material according to  claim 4 , wherein the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler has an average particle size ranging from 50 nm to 200 μm. 
     
     
       17. The sheet material according to  claim 1 , wherein the applying shear force at high pressure to the organic feedstock is performed by using high-pressure homogenization. 
     
     
       18. The sheet material according to  claim 8 , wherein the microfibrillated cellulose has an average diameter ranging from 50 nm to 10 μm. 
     
     
       19. The sheet material according to  claim 12 , wherein the sheet material has the microfibrillated cellulose ranging from 0.5 wt % to 5 wt %. 
     
     
       20. A method of producing a sheet material comprising fiber and nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler comprising microfibrillated cellulose and a starch granule as components, wherein the method comprising the steps of:
 (i) preparing pulp suspension, 
 (ii) preparing nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler by applying a shear force at high pressure to an organic feedstock thereby liberating the starch granule from a starch sac of the organic feedstock and obtaining the microfibrillated cellulose from the organic feedstock such that the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler comprises the starch granule at least by 15 wt %, 
 (iii) adding the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler into pulp suspension, 
 (iv) forming sheet material by pressing, and 
 (v) drying the sheet material. 
 
     
     
       21. The method of producing a sheet material according to  claim 20 , wherein the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler comprises the starch granule ranging from 15 wt % to 95 wt %. 
     
     
       22. The method of producing a sheet material according to  claim 20 , wherein the nano-microscale organic fibrillated filler comprises microfibrillated cellulose ranging from 5 wt % to 85 wt %. 
     
     
       23. The method of producing a sheet material according to  claim 20  or  21 , wherein the starch granule has an average particle size ranging from 5 μm to 60 μm. 
     
     
       24. The method of producing a sheet material according to  claim 20  or  22 , wherein the microfibrillated cellulose has an average diameter ranging from 5 nm to 100 μm and an average length ranging from 0.02 mm to 0.5 mm. 
     
     
       25. The method of producing a sheet material according to  claim 20 , wherein the applying shear force at high pressure to the organic feedstock uses pressure ranging from 100 bars to 10,000 bars. 
     
     
       26. The method of producing a sheet material according to  claim 20 , wherein the applying shear force at high pressure to organic feedstock is performed by using high-pressure homogenization. 
     
     
       27. The method of producing a sheet material according to  claim 20 , wherein the organic feedstock is an agricultural waste selected from cassava, potato, sweet potato, sago, taro, yam, or a combination of at least two thereof. 
     
     
       28. The method of producing a sheet material according to  claim 27 , wherein the agricultural waste has cellulose fiber and starch sac having the starch granule inside of it as components. 
     
     
       29. The method of producing a sheet material according to  claim 27  or  28 , wherein the agricultural waste with starch sac comprises the starch granule at least 15 wt %. 
     
     
       30. The method of producing a sheet material according to  claim 20 , wherein the pulp suspension is prepared from chemical pulp, mechanical pulp, semi-chemical pulp, recycled pulp, unbleached pulp, bleached pulp, or a combination of at least two thereof. 
     
     
       31. The method of producing a sheet material according to  claim 20 , wherein the sheet material is paper, natural polymers, sheet comprising fiber or sheet comprising mostly cellulose fiber.